I have a small confession. I could spend a good hour in the greeting card isle. I have to prepare myself and even evaluate whether I’m up to the task or not. It’s such an emotional roller coaster! Laughing one minute…crying the next…it can be quite pathetic, and if we’re ever out shopping together and you’re easily embarrassed, you may want to slip away to the grocery section or at least linger one isle over. It’s a sort of brief escape from reality. (On a side note…I think Wal-Mart could benefit greatly from making the card section a little coffee house of sorts, with benches and cappuccinos and maybe some soft music. That’s just my opinion, though.)
Anyway… this is my week to drive the school carpool. On the way home this morning, I wondered, “If my life was represented on a greeting card, how would it read? What illustration or emblem would grace the front to catch the shopper’s eye?” Immediately, a card a dear friend sent me years ago came to mind that pictures a fifties-era woman with perfect hair and a perfect smile, standing in her kitchen, wearing an apron, holding a mop. I can’t recall the exact words, but it said something about her spending her spare time polishing her floors to a lovely shine, then the inside read, “Help me.” Though I’m sure the picture on my card would most definitely not include perfect hair, polished nails or heels, the gist would most likely be the same. The caption would probably read, “Hello. I’m Mrs. Ordinary”, and this little punch line on the inside – “My extra is apparently missing right now. Maybe I left it in the pocket of the jeans I just threw into the washer or it rolled under the beds I haven’t made yet.”
My daily struggle is this: The only thing extraordinary about me is all of the extra ordinary. If you’re looking for ordinary, you’ve come to the right place. I have it in extra amounts! “Can I interest you in some mundane or seemingly trivial? I can serve that up hot and fresh with a side of guilt over discontentment and a steaming cup of restless anticipation. Oh, and who wants to sip on restless anticipation without a couple lumps of aimlessness? Wow. Sarcasm is an ugly thing, isn’t it? To my shame, I keep heaping helpings of that, too. Unfortunately, it makes its way off the back burner too often.
So, like the fifties lady from the greeting card, I’m left asking for help. Even though my emotions are screaming otherwise, I know He will help. I know His command is for me to live for His greatness, instead of my own and to always put the eternal above the temporal. Today, I simply refuse to be so “cumbered about much serving” that the “needful”, “good part” leaves a bad taste in my mouth. So, my solution this morning is to put off mopping the floors until Monday, spend extra time in the Word, and go have coffee with my mom. Since my husband is working and my girls are at school, she and Dad are the only other things of eternal value within walking distance. Dark and strong, please, with no cream.
Luke 10:38-42
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